"Our hero is police detective Robert Cunningham, 55. For the last eight years he's been a regular at Sal's Pizzeria in nearby Yonkers, N.Y., where Phyllis Penzo has waited on tables six nights a week for the last 24 years. Two weeks ago Cunningham was about to settle the tab on his usual meal of linguini and clam sauce when, on impulse, he offered Phyllis a deal instead of a tip. "Hey, Phyl, I've got a lottery ticket in my pocket," he said. "Why don't we split the card?" Penzo sat down and helped Cunningham choose the numbers for his $1 entry in the New York State Lotto Competition.

On April Fool's Day Cunningham called Penzo at 9 a.m. to tell her he had just won $6 million dollars and that she was entitled to half of it. "I was still asleep," she remembers. "I said, 'Don't bother me now.' " Cunningham convinced her that it was not a joke. She screamed, and woke her husband, Robert, a construction worker, to tell him they were rich. The two families will split the lottery payout of $285,715 a year over 21 years."